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Will the Prodrive P2 help form Aston Martin's F430 killer?

When Aston Martin was purchased by a group of investors led by Prodrive founder Dave Richards, news of future production Astons began to fly. The rumored product that has garnered the most attention is the mid-engined Ferrari F430 fighter we told you about recently. We loved the idea last week, and we're still squarely in the corner of "hurry up and build it now." Some of you will remember that Prodrive actually built a one-off sports/rally coupe called the P2 before their acquisition of Aston. It boasted blistering speed, good looks, and catlike agility.

The P2 was built to showcase the company's race-inspired technology as applied to a road car, but production was never really an option, and for good reason. At the time, Prodrive didn't have a factory, and factories are expensive. Now that it owns Aston Martin, however, the factory is there, and Aston's desire for a supercar jibes perfectly with what Prodrive is highly adept at: building fast, highly capable race-bred vehicles.

Now, no one's saying the P2 itself would be the basis of any Aston Martin. After all, it's based on the itty-bitty Subaru R1 (a JDM city car), which has no business being mentioned in the same breath as a $300,000 supercar. Similarly, the turbo four driving the P2 is around 8 cylinders short of what a proper Aston Martin should have sitting in the engine compartment. The lessons learned and the technologies employed in building the P2, however, could certainly be leveraged on future Astons, including a supercar destined to fight the exotics. That's where the rally-inspired coupe could leave its mark on the superluxury brand's future portfolio.

If you've never heard of the Prodrive P2, hit the jump to watch video of Top Gear's review of the concept car. It's handling is so good that Clarkson actually tossed his cookies after an extremely impressive cone maneuver (if you don't believe us, watch the video).

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Anonymous

Anonymous

7 Years Ago

"Blow off valves and wastegates are two different things"

duhhhhhh!!! I know what they are and how they work. He's saying that the wastegate is making the noise, which is nonsense. A wastegate doesn't make noise, a BOV does. As for ALS... Listen to the car backfiring, it's exactly what they are using. Same system as rally cars.

Anonymous

Anonymous

Anonymous

7 Years Ago

Personally, given that there's a Ferrari-fighter in the former parents' quarters (Ford) that is going to die a premature death, I would rather see Aston get ahold of it's platform, reskin it appropriately, stick the V12 in it... and go fishing.

Can you say, "Ford GT without the Blue Oval and S/C V8, replaced by a winged Aston logo and a 6.0L V12"?

Anonymous

Anonymous

7 Years Ago

uhhh, come one top gear. Mabey it's a brit thing but here in America it's not a wastegate, it's a blow-off valve, and I can certianly explain how anti-lag works. Throttle closed, a little extra fuel, retard timing, late combustion in exhaust manifold and boom, you have an ALS. I now like the new top gear about 1/2 as much, quite sad.

Anonymous

7 Years Ago

BTW, Jim, maybe you aren't as clear as you might think.

Blow off valves and wastegates are two different things, and on opposite sides of the turbocharger.

Wastegates purge exhaust pressure from the impeller side of the turbo into the exhaust system, preventing the turbo from going into an overboost condition, and limiting the impeller from driving the compressor to create too much intake pressure, above a set limit.

Blow-off Valves purge intake pressure after the compressor, (usually cycling it back to the intake side of the turbocharger) so that it doesn't over-pressurize the intake tract when the throttle is lifted, and the throttle body closes, preventing catastrophic pressure damage to the intake tract during shifting, or lifting the throttle after hard accelleration.

While I know that a flat four is not Aston material, I do wish prodrive would produce a small sports car with subaru drivetrain, outside and below the Aston Martin brand. With some slightly more graceful lines, the P2 would be a weapon that also looks the part.

I drive a modified turbocharged flat four Subaru every day, and with 300hp and more torque, it is a whole lot of fun, even in a 3400lb sport sedan Legacy GT.

No doubt an Aston V8 or V12 would be on a whole other level, of course. I would love to own a Prodrive-tuned AM-V8 Vantage. Ecurie Ecosse blue, please. :D

Either way, it will be very interesting to see what Prodrive and Aston Martin have coming up.